"The Thirty-First"
Chapter Number27
Number of Parts3
Written byKc Wayland
Episode Details
Part 1 Air Date3/5/12
Runtime23:40
Part 2 Air Date3/12/12
Runtime24:43
Part 3 Air Date3/19/12
Runtime17:37
Extras

[top]Recap

[top]Part 1

The chapter opens to Michael playing an acoustic guitar in his room at Ft. Irwin. After a few moments, Pegs enters and comments that she had no idea Michael could play. He says he used to, but hadn’t for a while. She asks if Puck had come by, Michael says he hasn’t. Pegs says she hoped he would have returned with their clothes from the washer and complains about the itchy PTs. Michael plays a little 12 bar blues shuffle. Pegs continues to bitch and moan about the quality of the garments she’s been given to wear. Michael laughs it off, mentioning Puck was also supposed to have an update on Riley [today]. The two discuss the chances of Riley being released, and briefly argue whether or not she tried to kill herself. Pegs as a little expository dialogue, letting us know what the rest of the survivors are doing before continuing to bitch about the clothing. Michael continues to play the guitar for a moment before he gets frustrated by Pegs being in the room. They argue about the secrecy of their relationship.

Tanya calls out to Michael from outside the room a few times before entering, asking if he had need/use for a speed loader that she found in one of her bags. Michael takes it and comments about her wearing a jacket, asking if she’s cold. He offers to find a space heater for her, but she declines stating she’s for a lot more stuff to go through and just needs to stay active. Michael goes back to playing the guitar for a brief moment before Pegs lays a guilt trip on him about spending time together. Tanya rushes back into the room in a panic, saying she found Kalani’s journal in Hope’s bag. Kalani’s hidden journal that Angel had retrieved from Bill’s desk before the tower collapse and had packed into Hope’s backback before sending her across the zipline to the chopper. Tanya tells Michael, “Read.”

We cut to Saul, Victor, and Chinwe. Saul and Victor are questioning her about Kalani. She says she never trusted him. Saul starts to spew random bits of information out before Victor pulls him aside and tells him to be careful of what he says. Saul unwisely ignores the warning. Victor and Saul continue the exposition, about the ‘other tower’ until Chinwe—also identified as CJ during the exposition—gets annoyed, takes the documents back and says, “You’re done with the notes. Get the hell out.” Saul goes off on another rant about who the rat was, and that everyone had been so sure it was Louis when they locked him up. Victor cuts him off with another warning not to divulge too much information. Saul continues to ignore his warnings, stating he’s tired of all the “bullshit secrets, like they even matter.” Victor pleads with him, but Saul ignores him, deciding instead to continue his rant about Chinwe (C.J.) keeping secrets. She reluctantly agrees to share and the exposition begins anew. C.J. tells then that one of her teams found Kalani at LAX, a man named Sean followed up on the claim that he flew in from Hawaii and said his story checked out, having found an airliner crashed on the runway just as Kalani had described to them.

Victor inquires why his picture was in the stack with the rest of the Mallers. C.J. claims Sean had a bad feeling about Kalani from the beginning, so he was blindfolded on the way back. She talks about having lost a lot of people before Kalani showed up [either died or left], acknowledging the fact that if he really was a pilot it would be a valuable resource for them. Saul hints to her that they were overrun. C.J. doesn’t deny it. He continues, telling her that [The Tower Residents] had the same idea with the apartment building, but that it didn’t work out, further indicating that they didn’t have half of the defenses that Chinwe has in place at her current building. Saul brings up the one that managed to get past their combo lock “some freaky fucker in a suit” and is promptly cut off when Chinwe produces a photograph of Ink, saying it’s a still from a surveillance video. Victor makes the connection between Ink and the reason why Chinwe is alone now. She agrees. Saul pushes for further information sharing, using Ink as the reason why it’s so important. Chinwe goes on to tell the two of them when and where Kalani was found by Sean, on a road outside of LAX, she’s uncertain as to which.

We now jump to the beginning of Kalani’s journal entry as told by Kalani—beautiful to hear Kevin’s voice again—for a few brief lines, before it crossfades into Michael’s voice as he reads the rest, back at Ft. Irwin. Michael, Pegs, and Tanya have been joined by Datu now. Michael begins to read the note that Tanya points out on the back cover, and as Michael begins to read it slowly fades into Kalani’s voice [I would like to note the score at this point is absolutely beautiful, and whoever wrote it should be given an award]. It is the beginning of Kalani’s confession and apology. He mentions taking off from Maui in his Dash Eight there were twenty-three of them, but by the time they transferred to the [7-]5-7 they found at the terminal at HNL there were only ten that made it aboard. He mentions that they were the only flight to take off from the island.

From here we step into real-time onboard the 5-7 with Kalani at the controls. His daughter enters the cabin to tell him that the others were asking if he’d heard anything. He says that he’s been trying [the radio] but nobody is answering. He flips on the radio and tries contacting Oakland Radio:

Oakland Radio... do you copy? This is November 6-4-Zero Alpha. We're a Boeing 7-5-7 over the Pacific at Flight Level 3-5-0, approaching Los Angeles. Current position is 40 East of eh-TEE-koh waypoint on Romeo 5-7-7. Oakland, do you copy?
When there is no response, he drops the radio.

A British gentleman enters, informing Kalani that [they’ve] been going through the luggage in the back and offers some snacks. Kalani asks for a water, identifies the man as Pippin and says he wouldn’t complain if he came across any jerky. Kalani and Hannah have a brief argument about Hannah’s ability to take care of herself. Pippin returns with food, a stolen laptop, a bunch of cash, and tries to give Hannah a stolen purse. Kalani tries to convince her not to take the purse, saying he doesn’t want a bunch of useless crap weighing her down in case they have to run for it.

Kalani figures they are about a half an hour out, and tells Pippin he should see to making sure that everything is secured in the back before they land. Pippin begins to argue—with an odd forcefulness—that LAX might not be the best place to land. Kalani puts him in his place with relative ease. Pippin mentions that he’d found a pistol among the luggage left behind, and passes a snide comment about Kalani’s Little Leaguer baseball bat [a great bat, by the way].

Kalani puts the plane down at LAX, but the landing gear had an issue and they ended up sliding on their belly to a stop. Everyone exits the plane via inflatable ramp, and chaos ensues as they are set upon by a horde. Kalani and Hanna make their escape in the opposite direction of the rest of the survivors. Kalani spots a baggage cart. Pippin calls to them just as they are about to take off and Kalani stops to wait for him. The three drive off in search of a way off the runway. Pippin spots a gate, and proceeds to provide cover with his pistol as they race towards it. He runs out of ammo and reaches for Kalani’s bat. No dice there, though. They get to the gate and Kalani gets Hannah over first. Pippin takes off, without offering any assistance to Kalani saying “Sorry, Tubby… you’re on your own.” Kalani finally makes it over the fence, and he and Hannah take off again, searching for a car to carry them the distance. Kalani hears a horn in the distance, and spots a car in the distance. They flag the car down and jump inside, just in the nick of time. Pippin is already in the car, he greets them and Kalani responds with “Fuck you, wanker.”

As the car pulls away from the gates, Kalani labours to catch his breath, extending his thanks to the people who picked them up. Latch tells him it was “No problem” and that they were lucky his and his sister found them. Scratch is the last voice we hear, telling Kalani and Hannah not to worry that they’re “safe now.

[top]Part 2

We pick up the second part of chapter 27 with the sounds of Kalani breathing heavily, and an engine revving. He expresses his immediate gratitude to his saviours—Latch and Scratch. Latch guesses correctly their passengers were on the plane that crashed, and Kalani tells them that the Zeds are on the island as well. Scratch seems to be surprised at the information. Pippin thanks Latch and Scratch for picking them up, asking how they knew that they were there. Scratch plays it cool, simply saying, “Hard to miss.”

Introductions are made all around; Kalani notes how Scratch’s name suits her with “the scar and all, very on the nose.” Latch says his name is due to his skill with a pick. Kalani introduces first himself, and then his daughter Hannah. Pippin introduces himself. Hannah acknowledges that she is injured, having scratched herself while climbing the gate. She says she’s fine though. Kalani checks it out and determines it isn’t so bad. She says it just stings. Latch inquires if there are any other injuries or if they came into close contact with “them.” Everyone else is fine. Scratch inquires about weapons, and Kalani realizes that his baseball bat is gone. He asks his saviours about their armaments and the group is shown an unidentified gun. Pippin comments that he’d like “one of those.” Latch tells them to sit tight, that they’re almost there.
Something seems to be wrong when Latch brings the vehicle to a halt, Hannah seems suddenly nervous and when Kalani tries to get answers, Scratch tells them to sit back and shut up or she’ll “show you what I’m good with.” Her dialogue is followed by the distinct sound of a switchblade opening. Pippin realizes his mistake.

We drop into Kalani’s voice over as he covers the journal entry for a short time, covering exposition about their destination and describing the Maller’s complex in fair detail. He specifically notes several men in orange jumpsuits working, and several others being “forced to help.” The vehicle stops and the three—Kalani, Hannah, and Pippin—are lead at gunpoint—presumably—into one of the buildings. A door opens and the sound of a generator can be heard, grumbling noisily.

They are led into what sounds like a radio room where they are questioned by an unknown man. The man makes mention of needing a bigger map after learning that the Zeds are also in Hawaii. Scratch and the Man discuss whether or not it is safe to talk around the three new people; the man seems to think it might not be the best idea and that the last time he misspoke “the boss got mad and it wasn’t pretty.”


It is at this point that the “special job” is brought up. Kalani makes the connection that the group is “dead-beat convicts” which seems to infuriate Scratch. The Man defuses the situation with Latch’s help. Kalani becomes his natural combative self, annoying both Scratch and Latch. At Scratch’s insistence to get things moving along, The Man lays out the plan for espionage. The conversation bounces back and forth for a few moments, before Pippin makes the stab at monetary compensation and immediately jumps on board. Scratch ignores Pippin completely, saying that she wants Kalani for the job. Kalani refuses, but Scratch makes him an offer that he simply cannot refuse, and as Latch leads Hannah out of the room, Scratch tells him that if she makes any more noise to shoot her. The door closes and Kalani is left with no choice. The Man lays out the plans for Kalani to memorize. Scratch makes it clear to Kalani exactly what will happen if he messes up the plans.

We switch back to Kalani’s voice over, the sounds of his pencil scratchings on the paper of his journal fill out the scene nicely, as he talks of the last time that he saw his Hannah. The ache in his voice is palpable, yet subtle. He is dumped off at the airport, where he is picked up shortly after by ‘the convoy.’

Here we switch into a combination of Kalani and Chinwe’s voice overs. Chinwe says her team picked him up outside of the hotels by the airport, and that Sean was leading the group. Kalani goes with them willingly—having no real choice. It sounds as though Sean has trained a rifle on him and says, “Keep your hands where I can see them.” He describes Sean being the first one that he met, and a massive hulk of a guy who was hard to miss. He checked out the plane, and then blindfolded Kalani and off they go. A short ride in the back of an SUV and Kalani “was in.”
Kalani is taken into the tower. He is introduced to Chinwe fully by Sean as Kalani Grey. She makes the assumption that he must not have been a very good pilot to have crashed. Kalani retorts with, “A bad pilot wouldn’t be standing here.” Chinwe orders Kalani to have a seat, that it might be a short stay. Kalani tries to argue, but Chinwe is having none of it.

Chinwe calls Sean into another room where they have a little expository conversation about another convoy. They discuss numbers; Chinwe is worried about their losses. Sean mentions having returned from the reserve base with Samantha and Duncan—they are unloading what was scavenged—noting that someone left the armoury door open. He mentions clearing out what was left.

We snap out of the flashback to Saul and Victor. Saul is surprised to learn that it was Chinwe’s group that stole the remaining ammunition, but is merely glad that it didn’t fall into the hands of the Mallers. He pushes C.J. for information about the ammunition, wanting to know if she still has the boxes of 5.56 cartridges. We drop back into the flashback.

Sean continues to list off what he found, Chinwe mentions that they have more guns than people. She worries about the Mallers picking up one of the deserters from their tower. Sean alludes to Chinwe having broken down in the past due to stress. The conversation switches gears with Sean asking Chinwe if they’re going to keep Kalani. She says she doesn’t have a pilot, and that could come in handy. She puts Sean in charge of keeping an eye on Kalani. Chinwe decides to put Kalani to work with Duncan who is working on some gates for the basement. They decide to mislead their residents and let everyone know that Kalani is a pilot—whether he is or isn’t—in a bid to keep as many people as they can.

Sean leads Kalani down to the basement, and they meet Samantha along the way. She’s collecting clothes to wash. Sean says she may want to wait until after they’ve worked before bothering. Kalani seems to be taken with her in some way. It seems to be as if she reminds him of someone. He prods Sean for information. All he tells him is her name and that she has a kid.

The two of them end up down in the basement, where work is on-going. Kalani is put to work mixing concrete. A half an hour later and Kalani was passed out in the corner and we’re back into his voice over. He recounts being there for three days, mentioning the supplies that were stockpiled, and how hard everyone there worked. He wrestles with the guilt of doing what he was sent to do, but only briefly. On the third day, he was finally without a shadow and began to search for a way to contact the Mallers to update them.

We slip into real-time when Samantha catches Kalani in a hallway on his own. She questions him as to why he’s alone. Kalani says his leash has been extended. He jokes that one day they’ll let him see daylight. Samantha voices her doubt of that prospect in light of the “whole convoy thing.” When Kalani seems unaware of the “convoy thing” Samantha elaborates, telling him that a few days ago a convoy of fifteen or so residents left, and never came back. Some of their best men—one of them apparently S.W.A.T. She says that her daughter has been indoors the entire time she’d been there. She alludes to Chinwe’s intense paranoia. Kalani mentions that Samantha has hair just like his late-wife.

Samantha drops the bomb on Kalani that the entire place is under camera, when they are confronted by Duncan, who seems annoyed that Samantha had left the watch post before her shift was over. Kalani and Samantha make a little more small talk before parting ways. Kalani’s voice over returns and he begins to recount the fall of C.J.’s Tower. He takes a walk through the tower to find the monitor room, and notes the radios within.

We switch back to Chinwe’s voice over. She says what happened next is unclear, that she has the video of the hallway where she knows Duncan went into the camera room, and the footage of the front door showing the Man in the Pin-Striped Suit being buzzed in by Duncan. She assumes it was an accident. Once it was inside, a tidal wave of death rolled in behind it. A battle ensues. Kalani hooks up with Sean, tries to find out where the guns are, but he’s directed to go to one of the fire escapes and make a break for it. Kalani heads for the radio room and contacts the Mallers to inform them that the tower is breached and they are “done.” When Kalani cannot give the location of the tower Scratch tells him that it simply isn’t enough. Kalani begs to know what they more they want from him. Scratch says he’ll find a way. Kalani asks what that’s supposed to mean. Scratch delivers the final line of the episode, “You better start running.”

[top]Part 3

We’re dropped into the action as C.J.’s tower is under siege by Zeds. Shots are being fired as Kalani hooks up briefly with Sean. Sean instructs Kalani to get to one of the fire escapes. Kalani high-tails it for the radio room, in order to contact the Mallers. Scratch informs him that he’d better “start running.” Kalani makes a run for it, hooking up with Duncan and we see the beginnings of what we’ve come to know as Skittles—capturing the moment at which his psyche begins to collapse on itself. Kalani tries to get him moving, but he’s paralyzed with fear, leaving Kalani no choice but to flee. He makes it out of the tower, into the rain where we drop into his voice over as he describes being knocked down and bludgeoned into unconsciousness.

From here we fade into the sounds of C.J. breathing and her voice over. She’s headed into the basement, to a small cache of weapons where she arms herself and holes-up, fighting off what sounds like five Zeds before she tells us that they stop coming. She says she can hear them breathing just around the corner, but they stopped coming. They wouldn’t come forward. She then hears something that she will “never forget.” It sounds to be Ink saying “Leave her.” She waits three hours past the last gunshot that she heard before finally calling out to anyone who may be near. She walks over broken glass, presumably moving into the lobby where she finds Duncan. He is has completely broken down, breathless and panicked, he runs off saying that he’s “going to find them” and C.J. is left alone. She says that she never saw him again.

She proceeds to clear the building, floor by floor, finding and dispatching the only two Zeds to have remained. Afterward, she goes back downstairs and seals off the way they had gotten in. Nobody else having survived, she is left by herself.

We cut back to Kalani as he’s waking up in the holding area inside the Arena. He’s not alone. A young man named Martin is with him and when Kalani complains of a headache, Martin offers him some pills. He won’t say what they are, just that they’ll help. There’s a bit of exposition regarding fires that were set in the garbage cans down in the Rink, Martin says that one lit the fires and the others just moved them around, and how his wrist was broken when Kalani starts to get dizzy and is told to sit down. Martin gives Kalani the rest of the pills “in case I’m next.” Martin says that his clock’s ticking now that they have Kalani, instructing him to try to O.D. if he gets himself in a really bad spot.

Kalani continues to move through the nine stages of grief, leaping up to bang on the door in anger, yelling that he can’t be in there. We can hear someone yelling behind the door. The door flies open without warning and Samantha is thrown into the room. Kalani sounds as though he makes a move for the captor and is knocked hard by one of the Zeds. The three are left alone once more.

Samantha and Kalani battle against the door, kicking it and yelling when we hear automatic fire in the distance. Samantha says that they had found each other at one of the weapon caches in the apartment building and were trailing behind her when she was grabbed. The three try and fail to force the door open again. They try to get the attention of the group below by pounding on the glass—it seems likely that they’re in an owner’s box—when Kalani collapses without warning. Martin narrates the action below when we hear the approach and roar of one of the behemoths. Destruction follows. Samantha weeps in despair.

Once more into Kalani’s voice over we go. He wakes up, Martin is gone, and he and Samantha are alone. He tells us that the two of them lay there for a long time, thinking about what was going to happen next. He takes the last of the pills, hoping that he wouldn’t have to think about what would happen to Hannah now.
We fade in on Datu’s pounding on the door, yelling as Kalani begins to regain consciousness. Datu crying out to whoever is in there with him, pleading that there has to be a way out.

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